JaMiE BaKeR: fallout

Film maker BRIAN McDONALD has made a short film that eulogizes the now demolished 70mm theatre in Seattle where he saw the films that shaped his love of movies. It’s called FLICKERING MEMORIES, and if you miss the passing of those movie palaces, then you may relate.

Going to the movies was such a big deal for me as a kid. This of course was the pre-video, pre-internet era. In my home town There was no cable TV, we had only two channels and one didn’t start till after lunch, when you would most likely get hour upon hour of CRICKET to watch, and that would be in black and white (Australia didn’t even get colour TV till about 1976). So, understandably, going to “the pictures” in the 1970’s was perhaps a bigger deal than it is for little kids today. I am still surprised when I hear kids skeptically ask “What’s on?” when given a chance to go to the movies… or even say they’d rather not go. When I was a kid I didn’t really care what was playing, I would go no matter what. It could be the “Shaggy DA” or the “Computer wore tennis shoes” for all I cared, just the chance to go was a big deal. But I didn’t have an Xbox or 100 channels of TV, an internet connection or a library of DVDs to choose from at home…

In my home town the movie palace was the beautiful old 1920’s CAPITOL theatre. That’s where I saw a lot of great movies (and all the crappy ones too) and experienced some of my best movie memories. There were those special days when Dad would take me to see a movie, just the two of us on a lad’s night out. On one memorable occasion I saw my first James Bond film with Dad. Sean Connery was steaming about the place strangling women with their own bikini tops and tossing baddies into molten mud… all before the opening titles. Ah yes, It’s the stuff cuddly childhood memories are made of.

As I got older I had the thrill of being trusted to walk to the theatre on my own steam and hook up with my mates to see the latest movie. I am reminded of that time in 1977 when I saw the original STAR WARS. There was an interruption that night, a blackout that lasted for about 20 minutes, so perhaps it’s fitting that the film burned when I saw the final episode. The circle is now complete. Anyway, the Capitol theatre was later torn down to make a KMART.

I have seen the same thing happen in every city I have lived in long enough to watch changes happen. Over the past 10 years here in San Francisco I’ve seen the nieghbourhood theatres such as the Royal and the ALHAMBRA get iether torn down or turned into 24 hour fitness centers…the Mighty CORONET (where Star Wars debuted in 1977) is no more… they are building a retirement home there. Oakland still has a bunch of great old theatres like the Paramount… or the Grand lake, which is where I saw Star Wars 3…

I went to see the latest, and final, Star Wars film at a midnight screening in Oakland last night. My buddy Rhode had gotten tickets in advance, and got even more good-guy points by getting in line at 2PM and waiting in the rain all day, holding spots near the front of the line for me and his room-mate Mark. Obviously, the people prepared to line up in the rain for 10 hours are the hard-core true believers, suffering the drizzle and the occasional smart alec remark from the cooler than thou passers by. So there is NO WAY that they are going to have a bad time at that movie, no matter what happens. I couldn’t have seen this movie with a better audience, as I really ended up enjoying myself.

Towards the end of the movie, when the plot is getting intense, the film image froze on screen and burned. I thought the audience was going to go mad with frustration. A theatre employee had to get up on stage in the dark and explain the situation to a crowd of surly Jedi, who may have gone Sith at any second. There was a news crew there recording the event for posterity, so if his crowd control skills hadn’t been up to snuff, he could have been caught on tape being pummeled to death by tubby middle aged Obi Wannabes and half-pint Darth Vaders wielding plastic light sabers. Thankfully, nobody gave into the dark side, the projectionist channeled the force, quickly spliced the film together and we were back in the speeder-bike saddle and we rode it through to the end.

Afterwards we had to go get a slice of gomer pie and geek out on what we’d seen, which we did at Denny’s till 4 AM. We all agreed that despite some reservations, we had really enjoyed the film. It neatly wrapped up loose ends and joined the new trilogy to the old, and there is a much better portrayal of the character relationships than in the Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. I have no hesitation in saying that SITH is the best of the new three films, though some would say that isn’t saying much, as even die-hards like myself were disappointed by the other two.

I have some other friends who’d seen it before opening night at preview screenings and let on that they had not liked it. Perhaps their early negative reviews had lowered my expectations and allowed me to be pleasantly surprised, or perhaps it was seeing the movie surrounded by happy fans that helped me enjoy it. There is of course the possibility that it was actually a good movie… but more likely, the real reason that I enjoyed this movie was the fact that, like it or not, I am a Star Wars nerd and I’m prepared to cut these movies way more slack than I would any other franchise.

An added cool factor for me was having some friends involved in the pre-visualization phase of this movie. Derek Thompson and Mike Murnane, who grew up on the original three Star Wars movies have now designed creatures that live in the world that fed their imaginations as children. One of the characters Mike designed was based on a drawing he did as a child, which was actually done in an attempt to draw his own Star Wars character (I remember doing the same sort of thing when I was a kid). Years later, when working on Attack of the Clones he submits THAT character as a potential design to George Lucas, who chooses it from out of a bunch of other designs, and that character is in the movie. I mean, how cool is that?

And speaking of the pre-vis artists there is a comic book anthology out in stores now that features original stories set in the Star Wars universe developed by the concept art team. It is called VISIONARIES. Derek’s story is called SITHISIS and features the Emporer being all sithed out and creepy. Mike’s story features the character he designed WAT TAMBOR. One of the cool aspects of this book is that it is the only item on sale where the artist will get a royalty for sales. That isn’t the case with the “art of” books. So if you are going to buy one Revenge of the Sith art book,then this is the one to get.

The New York Post estimates that Star Wars fans skipping work to geek out will cost the economy over $600 million dollars, but that is a small price to pay for nationwide nerd-closure. Now that the Star Wars saga is finally finished I imagine that the fan-base will experience some post partum depression. There are some things you can do to hold off the inevitable deflation. You could buy yourself an X-Wing. Or check out the STAR WARS thread on the drawing board. Or take solace in the fact that someone is building a “Real” R2D2 in Italy.

Whether you live in California or not, do you find something amusing in the fact that Kindergaten Cop is now running the place?

On the other hand if you actually like Der Governator, do you also like animation? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions then I have something for you.

It’s an animated spot called “The Misadventures of Lil’ Arnie” produced by Progressive Artists Group and deftly animated in a cut-out style by Charlie Canfield. You can see it at the California for Democracy website.

I recently aquired two beautiful books from France. The first is called DROLES de PINUP by HERVAL, who is one of the artists whose work you can see in the latest FLIGHT anthology. I became familiar with Herval’s work through image posting forums, mainly the Drawing Board. He became one of those few artists whose image posts I would save in a reference folder on my computer, (something I don’t do very often!) so it is gratifying to finally own a book of his. He is an excellent draftsman, and I’ve always enjoyed his colour choices. Droles de Pinup is not actually a comic book, but rather it is a series of gags illustrated with pinups of leggy beauties. If you like pinup artwork and especially if you like long legs, then this is the book for you. It can be bought at Amazon, or do what I did and buy it from the good Mr Herval himself on his website.

Thanks to Herval I also received a copy of Les Aberrants, a science fiction comic with art by the incomparable Belgian, Denis Bodart. Apparently this book was originally supposed to have been followed by a second volume, which unfortunately did not happen due to the poor sales of the first.

I can’t imagine why this first book didn’t sell, it can’t be due to the marvellous artwork. If there was a problem with the story it will take me a while to get to the bottom of it, as I am currently crawling through the text page by page… (sadly, I can only read French with the frequent aid of a dictionary!).

Thanks to some recent correspondance with Philippe Nihoul, I learned that the latest book by Bodart (with story by Mr Nihoul himself) is a western called INDEH and is expected to come out later this year! Here below is a preview image from that book.